Similar to my suggestions for the Pokemon World Tournament, I’m pretty much making this list because I don’t have anything better to do right now. Because the word limit prevents me from putting all the Mega Evolutions in one section, this guide will be split into several parts. Here goes.

Venusaur isn’t as popular as Blastoise or Charizard and although it has good Special stats and access to Chlorophyll to make up for its average Speed in sunlight, it didn’t really have much to make it stand out until it received its Mega Evolution. Besides, if you’re relying on Chlorophyll, you only make Venusaur more susceptible to Fire type moves and while Venusaur’s Earthquake, STAB Sludge Bomb or an appropriately typed Hidden Power will hurt most Fire types, it doesn’t have the raw power to ensure a knock out before it’s roasted alive.

Mega Venusaur is still as slow as regular Venusaur and has no way to boost its speed, but it makes up for this by being built like a tank. Increased Attack and Special Attack ensure it can hit harder but it’s greatest asset is it’s endurance. Thick Fat may seem like an odd ability at first, but it’s actually perfect for Mega Venusaur, complimenting its already solid bulk and enabling it to hold its ground against Fire and Ice types who would otherwise obliterate it, leaving Flying and Psychic types as the most reliable answer to this behemoth. Furthermore, access to Giga Drain, Synthesis and Leech Seed can make Mega Venusaur a nightmare to wear down so if you need a Mega who can hold out for a long period of time, this plant dinosaur’s an excellent choice.

Delta Venusaur is a bit more interesting than regular Venusaur, not just because it’s a Psychic and Fairy type but also because it’s Mega Evolution isn’t necessarily better than it’s regular form. It has access to Regenerator, which is a useful Ability for a defensive Pokemon, in addition to having the same bulk as regular Venusaur so it can make that work quite well. Moonlight, Leech Seed, Draining Kiss and even Pain Split compliment this Ability and keep it healthy while Reflect can cover it’s good but not great Defense stat. Delta Venusaur also has access to Calm Mind, enabling it to increase it’s two strongest stats at the same time.

Unfortunately, although Delta Venusaur gets stronger and bulkier when it Mega Evolves, being able to hit harder and take hits without being so reliant on Calm Mind and/or Reflect, it sacrifices Regenerator and replaces it with Hubris, which increases its Special Attack whenever it defeats a Pokemon. This would be excellent on a faster, more aggressive Pokemon - Mega Typhlosion and Armoured Mewtwo can wield this Ability to devastating effect - but Mega Delta Venusaur isn’t speedy enough to be a reliable sweeper so Hubris may not be as useful as Regenerator. You could try using a Trick Room set to sweep but 80 base Speed isn’t slow enough to ensure it will work.

As one of the most popular Pokemon of all time, it makes sense to milk Charizard for all it’s worth, so Gamefreak gave it not one, but two Mega Evolutions. Before we get to them, let’s examine regular Charizard. It’s weak to Water and Electric types but the real bane of it’s existence is Rock types. Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Power Gem, Ancient Power and even Rock Tomb and Rock Throw will either outright crush it or at least leave it roaring in agony while Stealth Rock rips away half of it’s HP as soon as it comes into battle. Focus Blast hurts them but only if it actually hits. Despite the anime’s portrayal, regular Charizard isn’t particularly powerful.

Then Mega Evolution arrived and Charizard became a potent threat to almost anything that stood in its way. Mega Charizard X gains the coveted Dragon typing as well as Tough Claws and 46 points to it’s Attack stat, making all it’s Physical moves overwhelmingly powerful. Earthquake doesn’t get a Tough Claws boost but is powerful enough on its own and Steel Wing was previously shrugged off by most Rock types but now makes them cower in fear. Charizard can even take their attacks a lot better with it’s increased Defense and loss of it’s Flying typing. It also has access to Roost, enabling it to heal up and then continue bringing the pain to it’s hapless opponents. STAB Dragon and Fire type moves gives it almost unresisted coverage, with only a handful of Pokemon like Azumarill and Mega Altaria being able to whether it’s assault, and those Pokemon can still be brought down by Thunder Punch and Steel Wing.

Mega Charizard Y gains a huge 50 points to it’s Special Attack and although it shares it’s base forms massive weakness to Rock types, it’s Drought Ability enables it to blow them away with a decisive Solar Beam on top of increasing it’s Fire power and weakening Water type moves. Roost keeps Charizard Y healthy and although Drought will only last for 5 turns, it’s raw power enables it to maintain a fierce offensive presence even without the sun. Charizard Y doesn’t change type when it Mega Evolves and it’s Flying type attacks don’t have much use outside of hitting Fighting types, most of whom wouldn’t last long against a Drought boosted Flamethrower or Heat Wave anyway, but unlike Charizard X it maintains it’s immunity to Ground type moves and 5 out of 6 entry hazards, though the entry hazard that can hit it, Stealth Rock, is just as painful as it is for regular Charizard.

You know how people always wanted Charizard to be a Dragon? We finally got that with Mega Charizard X but Delta Charizard became one without needing a Mega Stone in addition to being a Ghost. While there is no doubt that Mega Delta Charizard is more dangerous, regular Delta Charizard has the distinction of having Yveltal’s Dark Aura as it’s Hidden Ability. Unlike Noctem, this doesn’t wear off after a certain period of time so it’s Dark type moves get a 33% boost as long as it’s on the battlefield but the raw power of Delta Charizard’s Mega Evolution is too good to pass up.

Upon Mega Evolving, Delta Charizard uses Noctem to increase the power of its Ghost and Dark type moves, on top of enabling it to use Lunar Cannon and Phantom Force in one turn. With a stat spread identical to Mega Charizard Y, Delta Charizard becomes a lethal Special Attacker and can do reasonable damage from the Physical side too. However, it has several type weaknesses, although it can hit fellow Dragons and Ghosts just as hard as they can hit it. Sludge Bomb can take care of Fairies, who also lose some of their power as long as Noctem is in effect, and Flamethrower can melt Ice but Delta Charizard is at a disadvantage against Dark types and it’s own Ability can be used against it. Another disadvantage Delta Charizard has compared to a normal Charizard is that it can’t use Roost, but a well timed Pain Split can make up for that.

Blastoise has good defences which get higher when it Mega Evolves and it also has access to Rain Dish and Aqua Ring to slowly restore health, although Rain Dish only works for as long as Rain Dance is in effect. Blastoise is also one of the few Pokemon who can use Skull Bash, which boosts its Defense on the first turn and strikes on the second. This can all be done in one turn if you give it a Power Herb but then Blastoise wouldn’t be able to Mega Evolve. It can also use Rapid Spin to get rid of Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock, Livewire, Permafrost and Sticky Web.

Upon Mega Evolving, Blastoise gets a huge boost to its Special Attack in addition to gaining Mega Launcher which powers up Water Pulse (although Scald’s potential burn is more useful and Hydro Pump is stronger), Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse and Aura Sphere. Dark Pulse and Aura Sphere are both great moves but although Dragon Pulse is also powerful, it doesn’t have the same coverage as Ice Beam, which doesn’t get a Mega Launcher boost but still hits hard thanks to Mega Blastoise’s base 135 Special Attack. Blastoise’s endurance also improves but it loses Rain Dish and Aqua Ring takes a while to restore a significant amount of HP by itself. A Rest and Sleep Talk set could be used but that would sacrifice a lot of coverage so instead of fighting defensively, it’s better to just blow the opponent away with Special Attacks.

Delta Blastoise is a Fighting and Dark type which means Fairy types can obliterate it. While it can use New Moon to weaken their power and activate Shadow Dance to increase it’s Speed, this isn’t much use when it doesn’t have the raw power needed to blow Fairies away before they can hit it. It’s other weaknesses, Flying and Fighting, aren’t as much of a problem but you still have to be careful around them.

Fortunately, Delta Blastoise’s Mega Evolution gains the same huge Special Attack boost that a normal Mega Blastoise has, on top of the same Ability. Delta Blastoise’s Mega Launcher boosted STAB Dark Pulse and Aura Sphere can both be devastating and unlike regular Blastoise, it can overcome it’s Speed problems thanks to the priority move Vacuum Wave. It also has access to Dragon Pulse, although you might want a more suitable coverage move like Flash Cannon. While this move doesn’t get boosted by STAB or Mega Launcher, Mega Delta Blastoise’s significantly increased Special Attack ensures that it will still hurt and it can be a lifesaver against Fairies if Blastoise manages to pull it off. It’s buffed up endurance allows it to hold out a bit longer and it has access to STAB Drain Punch to keep it’s HP up, although it can’t hit nearly as hard from the Physical side as it can from the Special side. Like regular Mega Blastoise, Delta Mega Blastoise better for attacking than defending.

Regular Beedrill is weak so if you’re not using it’s Mega Evolution, there’s little point in using it at all. Too bad it’s counterpart, Butterfree, didn’t get a Mega too but oh well.

Beedrill’s stats aren’t very high and although the traditional 100 stat boost gained by Mega Evolution would have helped, there would still be other Mega’s who could fare better. However, by lowering Beedrill’s Special Attack, which it doesn’t use anyway, it now has an extra 30 stat points in addition to the 100 it gains by Mega Evolving and it puts all of those points into its Attack and Speed. Mega Beedrill is a powerful glass cannon, able to hit hard and fast with a massive 150 Attack stat (which rivals Groudon and Rayquaza unless they’re in their Primal/Mega forms) and excellent 145 Speed. Adaptability boosts its offensive potential even further, allowing it to land devastating Poison Jabs, X-Scissors and U-Turns. Drill Run also gives it great coverage as it hits Fire, Rock and Steel types super effectively, although there is a chance that it could miss and it doesn’t get boosted by Adaptability. Unfortunately, there’s a reason Mega Beedrill is known as a glass cannon. Although it hits extremely hard, it can’t take hard hits in return, which is why U-Turn is often used to ensure the opponent can’t land a blow if it endures Beedrill’s attack. Also, because Mega Beedrill’s Speed doesn’t get boosted until the turn after it transforms, it would be wise to use Protect to ensure it can Mega Evolve safely.

Pidgeot was the first regional bird but unfortunately, it didn’t have much going for it until it received its Mega Evolution. Regular Pidgeot became a bit faster when Generation V transitioned to Generation VI but it has neither the power nor the endurance to last long without it’s Mega Stone.

Upon Mega Evolving, Pidgeot gains a massive 65 points to its Special Attack, a decent boost to it’s Speed, a bit more endurance and the No Guard Ability. While No Guard does have the drawback of ensuring that the opponent will always hit Mega Pidgeot, it allows it to launch Hurricanes and Heat Waves with no fear of missing. Hidden Power (Ground) would also be useful due to its considerable Special Attack. Mega Pidgeot still struggles to endure powerful and/or super effective moves, especially now that it has no chance of dodging attacks, but it can U-Turn out if the going gets tough and can also use Roost to keep itself healthy.

Well, they did it. They turned the Gorgon Medusa into a Pokemon. Delta Pidgeot is a Dark Dragon with the ability to terrify its opponents with Intimidate and Glare as well as a unique, albeit pretty much useless move called Medusa Ray, which turns any opponent into a Rock type. You can also use Marvel Scale along with a Flame Orb to increase it’s Defense but in my opinion, it’s ability to use two Intimidates, the first by entering the battle and the second by Mega Evolving, is more valuable.

Upon Mega Evolving, Delta Pidgeot gains a massive Special Attack boost allowing it to launch devastating Draco Meteors, Dark Pulses, Dragon Pulses or/and Dark Matters, depending on which combination of those moves tickles your fancy. Like regular Pidgeot, it also has access to U-Turn and Roost as well as a higher Speed stat. However, Fairy types are a nightmare for Delta Pidgeot and since most Fairy type attacks are Special, Intimidate is useless against them unless they’re using Play Rough. Delta Pidgeot has access to Sludge Bomb and Sludge Wave, both of which will do a lot of damage to Fairies, but it’s probably wiser to U-Turn out and send in something better suited to fighting them.

Why the hell isn’t Waterfall a TM or HM in this game? Poliwrath needs it. Anyway, Poliwrath has good Attack and Defense and access to Bulk Up to boost both, but it’s fairly slow and because it can’t learn Aqua Tail, Waterfall isn’t a TM/HM in this game and it’s Special Attack stat is mediocre, it’s STAB Water moves are pretty much useless unless you get a lucky burn with Scald. Fortunately, it does have a powerful Mega Evolution.

Mega Poliwrath is more durable and it’s Attack stat skyrockets by a whopping 60 points (all the more reason for it to have Waterfall). On top of that, it has No Guard, ensuring it’s Dynamic Punch and Hypnosis will never miss and it can use Rock Slide, Poison Jab and/or Ice Punch for coverage. Unfortunately, Mega Poliwrath is still slow and it’s Special Attack doesn’t get boosted, meaning that without Waterfall (seriously guys, you need to fix that) it’s Water typing is pretty much useless on the offensive side. Fortunately being a Water type gives it resistances to Fire, Ice and Water type moves, on top of the resistances to Dark, Bug, Steel and Rock types that it gains through it’s secondary Fighting typing. It’s 7 resistances combined with it’s increased endurance can make Mega Poliwrath surprisingly tough to take down.

Unlike Poliwrath, Politoad’s Special Attack is decent so it doesn’t need Waterfall. It’s Drizzle Ability increases the power of its Water type moves for five turns, ten if you don’t Mega Evolve until after the first five turns have ended, although Politoad is in deep doo-doo if the opponent knows Thunder. Since it’s Mega Form also has Drizzle, you could also make use of Water Absorb as this allows Politoad to switch in on Water type moves and either be unaffected or, if it’s already weakened, restore some of its HP.

Upon Mega Evolving, Politoad gains a high Special Defense stat and it’s Special Attack also gets a lot stronger so it can use a powerful Hydro Pump, Surf or Scald, all of which are powered up by Drizzle. Unfortunately, although Politoad has quite a few good Physical Attacks such as Bounce, Earthquake and Ice Punch, it doesn’t gain any more Attack power by Mega Evolving so it’s better to strike from the Special side. Along with its Water type moves it also has access to Ice Beam, Psychic and Hyper Voice. Mega Politoad can also work quite well as a defensive Pokemon due to it’s endurance and many useful status moves, including Hypnosis, Swagger, Encore and Perish Song. Without Water Absorb and/or team support however, it’s only way of healing itself is Rest (unless your opponent is stupid enough to use Heal Pulse or you get a lucky Present) and although a Rest and Sleep Talk set can work well, it limits your coverage.

Alakazam is already one of the strongest non-Legendary Psychic types so it didn’t really need a Mega Evolution. On top of it’s impressive Speed and Special Attack, it has access to Magic Guard, an excellent Ability that blocks all indirect damage, whether it’s poison, burn, entry hazards or even Life Orb damage. Alakazam also has a large Special move pool which includes Psychic, Psyshock, Focus Blast, Signal Beam, Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball and more. However, Alakazam does have a crippling weakness; it despises Physical Attacks because of its pathetic Defense. It’s also worth noting that all priority moves, apart from Vacuum Wave, are Physical.

Although Alakazam never needed a Mega, it still appreciates having one. It’s already high Special Attack is boosted to a massive 175 and it can even outspeed Mega Beedrill and Mega Sceptile, two of the fastest Pokemon in existence, with its 150 Speed. It also has Trace as it’s Ability although whether this is better than Magic Guard depends on what Pokemon you’re facing. For example, if you’re facing a Slaking, for the love of God, don’t Mega Evolve. However, if you’re facing a Furfrou or Mega Frosslass, you can Trace Fur Coat and boost Mega Alakazam’s still low Defense.

One more thing; according to Generation VI, Mega Alakazam only gains 90 more stat points instead of the usual 100. This was changed in Generation VII but due to Pokemon Insurgence beginning development in Generation VI, it’s unlikely that the increase to Mega Alakazam’s Special Defense is actually included in the game.

Why doesn’t Slowking have a Mega Evolution? Oh well, Slowbro does but if you’re using Mega Slowbro, there’s no point in getting one with Regenerator because it loses that Ability when it Mega Evolves. Regenerator’s a great Ability that restores some of Slowbro’s energy if you recall it, enabling Slowbro to be pretty frustrating for its opponents even without its Mega Stone. Low Speed makes Slowbro excellent in Trick Room and a solid Defense stat and good Special Attack enable it to take hits and dish them out pretty well. Add Amnesia, Calm Mind, Light Screen or an Assault Vest to increase it’s Special Defense (and Special Attack in Calm Mind’s case) and you’ve got a fairly tanky Pokemon on your hands.

Mega Slowbro gains a massive 70 points to its Defense, allowing to shrug off almost any Physical Attack. Maybe a STAB Strong Jaw boosted Crunch from Mega Sharpedo could crack that shell but very few other Physical Attackers can bother Mega Slowbro. Unfortunately, it’s Special Defense remains the same when it transforms but it has Calm Mind, Amnesia or Light Screen to make up for this. Shell Armour may seem worthless compared to Regenerator but if you’re trying to make Mega Slowbro hold out against Special Attackers, the last thing you need is a Critical Hit punching through while it’s raising it’s Special Defense. Also, Mega Slowbro still has an excellent recovery move called Slack Off so the loss of Regenerator isn’t much of a problem. It also gains a nice boost to its Special Attack and has a huge Special move pool which includes Surf, Scald, Psychic, Psyshock, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Grass Knot, Shadow Ball, Focus Blast and Signal Beam. Sorry Slowking, but unless you get a Mega Evolution of your own, Slowbro is stronger.

The original Ghost, Gengar, has already enjoyed a successful career throughout Pokemon history. High Speed, high Special Attack, four resistances and three immunities, two provided by its Ghost typing and the third provided by it’s Levitate Ability, literally kept Gengar afloat over the years and made up for its weak defences. It’s access to many different Special Attacks such as Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, Psychic, Dazzling Gleam, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball and more, in addition to various status moves like Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Will-O-Wisp and Toxic, make it an extremely dangerous Pokemon when used correctly. It never really needed a Mega Evolution, but it got one anyway, and that Mega is one of the strongest in the entire game.

The one downside of Mega Gengar is that it loses Levitate and therefore can be hit by super effective Ground type moves. Aside from that though, Mega Gengar does everything regular Gengar does but does it better. A free Mean Look in the form of Shadow Tag prevents your opponent from escaping, it’s Speed increases and it’s Special Attack ascends to a mighty 170. While Mega Gengar is still quite frail, it’s a lethal Pokemon that can be a great asset to your team.

Marowak’s not a particularly powerful Pokemon, but it has a niche by having decent Defense and a signature item, Thick Club, to boost it’s Attack. Unfortunately, it’s also slow and can be overwhelmed pretty quickly by Special Attacks. Although Bonemerang and Bone Rush can break Focus Sashes, Sturdy and Substitute, Marowak relies heavily on its Thick Club so if the item is stolen, knocked off or disabled, it becomes pretty much useless. Fortunately, Pokemon Insurgence was kind to Marowak, gifting it with Phantom Force, Shadow Sneak and a Mega Evolution.

Mega Marowak is more resilient, gains a huge Attack boost and summons the spirit of it’s deceased parent or (here’s an even more disturbing thought) it’s deceased child to turn into a part Ghost type. This makes it immune to Normal and Fighting type moves, in addition to the Electric immunity already granted by its Ground typing, and turns Shadow Sneak and Phantom Force into STAB moves. Furthermore, it gains the same Ability as Mega Kangaskhan, Parental Bond, so the living Marowak will strike first and the spirit will strike immediately afterwards. The second hit doesn’t do as much damage as the first but thanks to Mega Marowak’s high Attack stat, the combined damage of both blows can still really hurt. However, Parental Bond doesn’t work on Bonemerang or Bone Rush so if you’re hoping for 4 hits from the former and a maximum of 10 hits from the latter, you’ll be disappointed. This doesn’t really matter though because Earthquake is much more reliable anyway. Despite gaining some more Speed, Mega Marowak is still slow but since Shadow Sneak is a priority move, this weakness isn’t much of a problem. Overall, Mega Evolution was a blessing for Marowak, turning it into a pretty damn powerful Physical Attacker.

Kangaskhan’s Attack, Defense, Special Defense and Speed are pretty well balanced and she has no need for her Special Attack anyway because her Physical move pool is larger. This move pool includes STAB Fake Out, Retaliate, Mega Punch, Dizzy Punch, Giga Impact, Return, Frustration and Chip Away in addition to plenty of other options like Brick Break, Hammer Arm, Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, all three of the Elemental Punches, and even Outrage. However, even her Attack, which is her highest stat, doesn’t reach 100 without the boost provided by Mega Evolution. While she can use Scrappy to hit Ghost types with STAB moves, this is pretty much irrelevant because she can also use Crunch and Sucker Punch which, while lacking a STAB boost, can hit them super effectively. Overall, once you get a Kangaskhanite, there’s no point in using regular Kangaskhan.

Technically, the adult Kangaskhan doesn’t Mega Evolve. Ever noticed that the mother still looks exactly the same? The child is the one the transforms and teams up with her mother to become a formidable duo. Parental Bond is an excellent Ability which allows Kangaskhan to break Focus Sashes, Sturdy and Substitutes with ease and is backed up by a generous Attack boost (her Special Attack increases too but there’s still no point in using that). The daughter doesn’t hit as hard as her mother, unless they’re using Seismic Toss, but the combined assault is still enough to overwhelm most opponents. The one disadvantage of Parental Bond is that if Kangaskhan hits a Pokemon with Rough Skin or Iron Barbs, she and her daughter will both take damage. However, her boosted endurance and access to Drain Punch, which hits twice thanks to Parental Bond and thus restores more energy than it normally would, means that even with this one drawback in an otherwise amazing Ability, Mega Kangaskhan can still be tough to wear down.

I’ve never understood why Pinsir isn’t a dual Bug and Fighting type. Before the introduction of X-Scissor in Generation IV, it relied mostly on Fighting and Normal type moves because it’s only Bug option was Fury Cutter. Anyway, Pinsir has a good Attack stat and a decent Defense stat as well as access to Bulk Up, Swords Dance and three useful Abilities; Hyper Cutter to block Intimidate and Attack reducing moves, Mold Breaker to disable certain Abilities including Levitate and Sturdy, and Moxie to increase it’s Attack each time it knocks out a Pokemon. The downsides are that it’s fairly slow, although Quick Attack makes up for this, and can be defeated quite easily by Special Attacks whilst also not doing much if it uses them itself. Despite these weaknesses, Pinsir’s actually an okay Bug without it’s Mega, but is often overlooked because there are so many other Pokemon that provide it with tough competition.

While Pinsir is a decent Bug Pokemon on its own, it’s Mega Evolution is a real powerhouse. It’s already solid Attack stat reaches a considerable 155 and it’s Defense, Special Defense and Speed all gain 20 more points respectively. Although becoming part Flying type means it can be easily crushed by Rock types and loses half of its energy if it switches in on Stealth Rock, it also grants it an excellent Ability called Aerilate which turns all Normal type moves into STAB Flying type moves and gives them a 30% boost. Because of this, Mega Pinsir’s Quick Attack is almost as powerful as ExtremeSpeed and, after boosting with Swords Dance, even Defensive walls like Skarmory will take serious damage from Return, Thrash or Giga Impact. Earthquake and Rock Slide or Stone Edge provide it with great coverage, Brick Break smashes Reflect and/or Light Screen, Close Combat and Superpower provide a lot of raw power at the cost of lowering two of Pinsir’s stats, and X-Scissor is another option for STAB, although Aerilate boosted moves are usually more than enough to get the job done.

Gyarados should be a Water and Dragon type. Lance has one, it learns plenty of Dragon type moves and it’s designed like a sea Dragon. I can only think of one reason why Gamefreak gave it Flying as it’s secondary typing; they feared it would be too powerful without it. It’s only type weaknesses are Rock (which is obviously weak against Water type moves) and Electric and although Gyarados’ Defense isn’t great, it’s Intimidate Ability lowers its opponents Attack power and it’s Special Defense is decent. Despite its crippling weakness to Electric type moves, Gyarados can rip through entire teams after two or three Dragon Dances, which not only boosts its already solid Attack power but also makes up for it’s mediocre Speed. It can also use plenty of powerful Physical Attacks including Aqua Tail, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Crunch, Ice Fang, Outrage and Giga Impact (I would add Waterfall to the list but the developers still haven’t made it into a TM, HM or Move Tutor move). Moxie is an option to increase it’s Attack even further after each kill but if you’re using Mega Gyarados, stick to Intimidate.

Mega Gyarados not only gains even more raw power but is also much more resilient. Although it’s new Dark typing gives it more type weaknesses, none of those types hurt it as much as Electricity hurts regular Gyarados, plus the Dark typing also provides it with a STAB Crunch attack. With both it’s Defense and Special Defense boosted and Intimidate weakening the opponent’s Physical moves before Mega Evolving, Mega Gyarados can take hits from both sides of the attacking spectrum more easily than its base form. It also has Mold Breaker as it’s new Ability so it can obliterate Levitating Pokemon with Earthquake, smash straight through Sturdy Pokemon and even has a chance of landing Critical Hits on Pokemon with Shell Armor or Battle Armor. Unfortunately, it isn’t any faster and although it has a lot of Special moves to choose from, such as Hydro Pump, Scald, Flamethrower, Hurricane, Thunder and Hyper Beam, it’s Special Attack hasn’t received enough of a boost for it to really make use of them. Nonetheless, if Mega Gyarados has time to set up a couple of Dragon Dances, very few Pokemon can stand in its way.

Eevee is a unique Pokemon for several reasons. For one thing, it has 8 different evolutions, more than any other Pokemon ever created. For another, it’s the only pre-evolved Pokemon that’s able to Mega Evolve. And finally Mega Eevee gains a total of 173 more stat points which not only perfectly balances out its stats, but also gives it a far bigger boost than any other Mega Evolution.

Regular Eevee is pretty weak on its own although Adaptability does power up its STAB moves. It’s real strength is that it can evolve into 8 different Pokemon of 8 different types, which consist of the Electric type Jolteon, the Fire type Flareon, the Water type Vaporeon, the Psychic type Espeon, the Dark type Umbreon, the Grass type Leafeon, the Ice type Glaceon and the Fairy type Sylveon. But which evolution would you choose? Any one of those Pokemon could be useful depending on the situation but once you evolve, you can’t turn back. That’s where Eevee’s Mega Evolution comes in. It solves this problem by not only allowing you to choose 4 of Eevee’s evolved forms at once, but also allowing Eevee to return to its base form.

Mega Eevee not only gains a huge stat boost but also gains an incredible Ability called Protean Maxima. This allows it to transform into any one of its evolutions at will as long as it knows certain moves. Thunderbolt and/or Volt Switch turns it into Jolteon, Flare Blitz and/or Fire Blast turns it into Flareon, Hydro Pump and/or Scald turns it into Vaporeon, Psychic and/or Psyshock turns it into Espeon, Foul Play and/or Pursuit turns it into Umbreon, Leaf Blade and/or Giga Drain turns it into Leafeon, Ice Beam and/or Blizzard turns it into Glaceon, Dazzling Gleam and/or Moonblast turns it into Sylveon and Giga Impact and/or Hyper Voice turns it back into Mega Eevee. This Ability is what makes Mega Eevee such a powerful Pokemon because even with the massive boost and perfect balance between its stats, they’re still not very high, at least in comparison to other Mega Evolutions. Mega Eevee’s strength is its versatility. It has different immunities and/or resistances depending on which form it turns into, it can use STAB attacks from 9 different types (although 4 Move-slot Syndrome prevents it from using all 9 types at once and it’s Normal type moves don’t hit anything super effectively), and it can use Jolteon, Flareon, Vaporeon, Umbreon, Leafeon and Sylveon’s Special Abilities (Volt Absorb, Flash Fire, Water Absorb, Synchronise, Leaf Guard and Cute Charm) as well as Espeon and Glaceon’s Hidden Abilities (Magic Bounce and Ice Body). Overall, Mega Eevee might be the most ingenious Mega Evolution ever created and is certainly the most unique. It may not be the strongest, fastest or most resilient Pokemon, but it can hold its own against opponents with far higher stats thanks to its ability to adapt to almost any situation.

Aerodactyl is well known for its high Speed, which it backs up with a good Attack stat. However, it’s quite frail on the defensive side and it’s Abilities are often useless because it doesn’t have the endurance to make great use of Pressure, it can only activate Rock Head by using Take Down (seriously guys, no Double-Edge?) and Unnerve only works if the opponent is holding a berry. With that said, it has a great Physical move set including Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Aerial Ace, Sky Drop, Earthquake, Aqua Tail, Iron Head, Steel Wing, Dragon Claw, Crunch, Giga Impact, and all three of the Elemental Fangs. However, there’s no point in using regular Aerodactyl once you have the Aerodactylite. Unfortunately, you currently can’t obtain that Mega Stone in Pokemon Insurgence. Hopefully, the developers will fix that in the next patch.

To call Mega Aerodactyl fast would be an understatement, as it’s Speed surpasses that of the extremely agile Mega Sceptile and Mega Beedrill and ties with Mega Alakazam, putting it among the top 5 fastest Pokemon in existence. On top of its incredible Speed, Mega Aerodactyl not only gains a generous 30 points to its Attack but has Tough Claws as it’s Special Ability, boosting it’s Attack by 33% and allowing it to rip through entire teams on its own (although Tough Claws doesn’t work on Earthquake, Stone Edge or Rock Slide, despite them being Physical Attacks). It’s still quite frail on the defensive side but can use Roost to keep itself healthy and thanks to its large Physical move pool and massive Speed and Attack, it’s likely that unless it’s opponent uses priority moves or has a huge Defense stat, it’ll simply tear them down before they can even hit it.

Mewtwo’s already an extremely powerful Pokemon but because of it’s popularity, Gamefreak decided to milk it just like they milked Charizard, giving it two overwhelmingly powerful Mega Evolutions. Without its Mega Stones, Mewtwo is already monstrously powerful, capable of ripping teams apart with a massive 154 Special Attack stat and great 130 Speed. Even Specially Defensive walls like Blissey cower before it’s Signature Move, Psystrike, which targets their Physical Defense whilst still hitting as hard as a Special move. In Pokemon Insurgence, it’s offensive potential can be boosted even further by giving it the Mewtwo Armour (based off the armour Giovanni gave it in Mewtwo Strikes Back) which grants it Hubris to increase it’s Special Attack after each victory. However, the downside of using Mewtwo Armour is that, unlike all other Armours in the game, it doesn’t increase Mewtwo’s endurance. Speaking of endurance, Mewtwo’s defences aren’t great and its more frail looking counterpart, Mew, is actually more resilient. This isn’t much of a problem though as it’s 90 base defensive stats are still good enough to let it take a hit or two and it has access to some good defensive techniques like Barrier, Reflect, Amnesia and Light Screen to make up for Mewtwo Armour’s drawback.

Mega Mewtwo X gains a bit more endurance, a phenomenal 80 points to its Attack stat, and Fighting as its secondary typing. On top of that, it can still hit just as hard from the Special side as regular Mewtwo, although it has to sacrifice Mewtwo Armour and it’s Attack stat is now 36 points higher than it’s already massive Special Attack, which makes it the most powerful Physical Attacker in existence. This is complimented by the fact that Mewtwo actually has access to a lot of Physical Attacks, despite being better known as a Special Attacker. It’s massive Attack boost can be put to good use with moves like Psycho Cut, Zen Headbutt, Drain Punch, Low Kick, Low Sweep, Brick Break, Power Up Punch, Earthquake, Bulldoze, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, Iron Tail, Aqua Tail, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Return, Frustration and Giga Impact. With it’s vast Physical power and still impressive Special power, Mega Mewtwo X can rip through entire teams all on its own.

Mega Mewtwo Y has a pretty big weakness due to losing 20 points of its Defense stat, but it’s still a lethal Pokemon, being even faster than regular Mewtwo and Mewtwo X whilst also gaining a higher Special Defence stat. The boost to its Attack wasn’t needed but you can make use of it thanks to its large Physical move pool. The most impressive change is that the 40 points added to it’s Special Attack increases said stat to an overwhelming 194 points, making Mega Mewtwo Y the most powerful unboosted attacker in the entire Pokemon franchise as even Mega Mewtwo X’s enormous Attack stat is 4 points lower. With it’s phenomenal Special Attack and access to many Special moves including Psystrike, Psychic, Aura Sphere, Focus Blast, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Electro Ball, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Signal Beam, Water Pulse and Hyper Beam, Mega Mewtwo Y can blast through entire teams with ease. It only fears priority moves, which are almost all Physical, and the very few Pokemon that can outspeed it and target it’s weak Defense.

The mysterious Shadow Mewtwo is currently unavailable to the player in Pokemon Insurgence and the only times you’ll see it are during your battles with Reukra. Fortunately for you, he doesn’t use its Mega Evolution. Shadow Mewtwo’s differences from normal Mewtwo are it’s Ability, which is Intimidate, and it’s typing, which is a combination of Psychic and Dark. This typing makes Bug type moves a nightmare for it but also grants it STAB Dark Pulse or Dark Matter.

Mega Shadow Mewtwo maintains Intimidate, giving it two opportunities to lower its opponents Attack, and has the same stat spread as Mega Mewtwo X. The one downside, aside from its 4× weakness to Bug, is that it’s only Physical Dark type move is Foul Play, which relies on the opponents Attack stat more than Shadow Mewtwo’s Attack. Nonetheless, Mega Shadow Mewtwo rivals Mega Mewtwo X as the strongest Physical Attacker in the game and can still hit very hard from the Special side too.

Meganium is a reasonably bulky Pokemon who can take a few hits and has access to plenty of healing moves, including Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Ingrain and Synthesis. However, although it can take hits, base 82 Attack and 83 Special Attack aren’t great offensively. Access to STAB Giga Drain, Petal Dance and Solar Beam is nice but without STAB boosts, it’s coverage moves like Ancient Power, Earthquake and Bulldoze don’t have the raw power it needs to threaten bulky opponents. Fortunately, Meganium has plenty of support options including Reflect, Light Screen, Safeguard and Aromatherapy. It won’t be sweeping but it can defend itself, wear down opponents with Toxic, Poison Powder and Leech Seed, and support its team mates quite well, especially if it’s holding a Light Clay to increase the duration of Reflect and Light Screen.

Upon Mega Evolving, Meganium turns into a Grass and Fairy type, it’s Speed increases and it gains 40 more points to both it’s Defense and Special Defense which can make it pretty tough to wear down, especially when combined with Light Screen, Reflect, Substitute and/or it’s various healing techniques. Unfortunately, Mega Meganium can’t hit any harder than regular Meganium, although STAB Dazzling Gleam can come in handy. The loss of Light Clay can also be problematic as Reflect and Light Screen will only last 5 turns and although it’s Fairy typing gives it two extra resistances and an immunity to Dragon, it also gives it a weakness to Steel and makes it extremely vulnerable to Poison type moves. Fortunately, Mega Meganium gains Magic Bounce, an excellent Ability which reflects its opponents status moves back at them. Mega Meganium is designed to work a lot like Mega Venusaur but since it can’t hit so hard, it’s more reliant on its ability to wear it’s opponents down slowly whilst enduring or blocking hits and healing off damage. Frankly, those 20 points that were given to it’s Speed would have been much more useful in it’s Special Attack.

Typhlosion has decent Special Attack and a fair amount of Speed but isn’t very tough on the defensive side. It also suffers from the fact that most of its coverage moves are Physical and neither regular Typhlosion nor its Mega Evolution hits as hard with Physical Attacks as it does with Special ones. It has a few useful Special Attacks including Eruption, Blast Burn, Flamethrower, Lava Plume, Extrasensory, Focus Blast, Swift, Acid, Hidden Power (though this of course depends on Typhlosions IVs) and Solar Beam (which of course depends heavily on Sunny Day) but not nearly as many as it would like.

Although Mega Typhlosion gets a boost to its Attack, said boost is nowhere near as big as the 51 points given to its Special Attack so you’re going to be relying largely on Special moves. Is Special move-pool is frustratingly shallow, but the moves Mega Typhlosion can use normally hit hard enough to get the job done, especially if it manages to activate its Hubris Ability by defeating other Pokemon beforehand. Typhlosion also gets a Speed boost which can help it sweep more easily, although you might want to boost it with Flame Charge because there are still many Pokemon that can outspeed it.

Mega Typhlosion also gains 101 extra stat points instead of the usual 100, a trait it shares with its Delta counterpart. Speaking of which…

Delta Typhlosion is an Electric and Steel type, which of course gives it a massive weakness to Ground type moves. Fortunately, it can use Magnet Rise to avoid them. It also has access to more Special Attacks than its normal counterpart, including Thunder, Thunderbolt, Discharge, Volt Switch, Flash Cannon, Dark Pulse, Snarl, Dazzling Gleam, Grass Knot, Energy Ball, Shadow Ball and Signal Beam and these moves grant it much better coverage. If the opponent uses an Electric attack, Delta Typlosion uses it to boost its stats, Speed if it has Motor Drive and Special Attack if it has Lightningrod.

Mega Delta Typhlosion is known for its unique Supercell Ability which activates in rain or darkness, hence you’ll almost certainly want it to know either Rain Dance or New Moon. In New Moon’s case, I think it should have Lunar Cannon to go with it but never mind. Anyway, Supercell switches Mega Delta Typhlosion between its Inactive Mode and Active Mode with the latter increasing its already high Special Attack whenever it uses Rain Dance (which also weakens Fire type moves and gives Thunder perfect accuracy) or New Moon, enabling it to blast its way through most opponents with ease. Delta Typhlosion’s Speed is okay but even when it Mega Evolves, there are still at least 75 Pokemon (including Delta’s and Mega’s) that are faster. If Motor Drive is activated before Mega Evolving, it makes sweeping easier and Flame Charge is also an option but it’s power gets halved by Rain Dance. Another option is to lay down Livewire to paralyse opponents when they switch in, although this doesn’t work on Flying, Ground, Electric, Levitating or Limber Pokemon.

Feraligatr has decent Attack and Defence and can increase both with Bulk Up, in addition to having access to Agility, which makes it a lot faster, Dragon Dance, which increases its Speed and Attack, and Draco Jet, which is a priority move. However, there’s not much point in using it if you’re not using it’s Mega Evolution because there are so many Water types that Feraligatr struggles to make a big enough splash to be relevant.

Mega Feraligatr is far more lethal and can now stand out among the many competing Water types as a formidable Physical Attacker. Not only does it gain 35 points to its Attack but it’s also faster, more durable and has Tough Claws as it’s Special Ability, boosting all its Physical Moves apart from Earthquake, Bulldoze, Rock Tomb and Rock Slide, although base 140 Attack should be enough to make them hurt too. Tough Claws boosted Ice Fang or Ice Punch is excellent against Grass types, Power-Up Punch, Swords Dance, Bulk Up or Dragon Dance can boost its Attack even further and although it would appreciate Waterfall due to 100% accuracy and a chance of causing the opponent to flinch, Aqua Tail is a strong STAB move, albeit one with a 10% chance of missing. Feraligatr can also go all out with Superpower and use Bulk Up to make up for its side effect of lowering its Attack and Defence, which are still it’s strongest stats after Mega Evolving.

Most Electric types are fast but Ampharos is one of the exceptions. It’s a decent Special Attacker who can use Thunderbolt, Thunder, Discharge, Volt Switch, Signal Beam, Power Gem, Focus Blast and Dragon Pulse and also has some useful defensive moves like Cotton Guard, Charge and Light Screen. It’s only type weakness is Ground which gives it better survivability but its endurance still isn’t great and due to its low Speed, it can be easily outmanoeuvred. Ampharos has to rely pretty heavily on paralysing its opponents with Thunder Wave, Livewire, Static or a lucky Thunderbolt, Thunder or Discharge to gain the upper hand, although it can also use Agility to try and make up for its Speed problems.

Mega Ampharos is even slower than regular Ampharos but it makes up for this by being more resilient and gaining a huge 50 points to it’s Special Attack. While it’s lack of Speed can still be problematic outside of Trick Room, Mega Ampharos hits a lot harder and has higher defensive stats. It’s new Dragon typing is both a pro and a con. It’s a pro because it gives it a powerful STAB Dragon Pulse backed up by a massive 165 Special Attack stat, but it’s a con because it makes it weak against Ice, Fairy and fellow Dragon types. Mega Ampharos can attempt to sweep by setting down Livewire or boosting its Speed with Agility but there are many Pokemon that are immune to Livewire and Mega Ampharos is so slow that it’ll probably have to use Agility two or three times before it’s fast enough to overwhelm multiple Pokemon in a row. Another option is to simply use Rest and Sleep Talk, which is probably more viable as Mega Ampharos is durable enough to take hits and Dragon Pulse combined with Discharge, Thunderbolt or Thunder (though there’s a 30% chance Thunder will miss outside Rain Dance so I advise you don’t use it) is usually all you need to cause significant damage, unless you’re facing an anomaly like Ferrothorn or Mega Altaria.

Sudowoodo is an odd Pokemon, a Rock type that looks like a Grass type with a Mega Evolution that gives it the ability to be both. In it’s regular form, Sudowoodo’s Rock Head blocks recoil damage from Wood Hammer and Double-Edge. Due to it’s low Speed, which drops even further if it lands a blow with Hammer Arm, it relies heavily on Sucker Punch, while it’s STAB moves consist of Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Rock Tomb, Rock Throw, Smack Down and, oddly enough, Rollout, though it clearly isn’t designed to curl up into a ball. Like all Rock types, it can also set up Stealth Rock to hurt Pokemon that switch in. It has the options of increasing its Speed with Rock Polish or lowering the opponents Speed with Rock Tomb and/or Bulldoze but since Rest is the only healing move it can learn, there’s no point in wasting turns and allowing your opponent to gain the advantage or outright win before Sudowoodo can outspeed it. Just stick to Sucker Punch.

Mega Sudowoodo is a bit of a mixed bag. On top of gaining a secondary Grass typing, which makes Water and Grass type attacks neutral hits and blocks Leech Seed, Sleep Powder, Spore and Stun Spore, it has stronger endurance and Attack but also lower Speed and, for some reason, a boost to it’s Special Attack which it never uses. The most notable and damaging change is that Rock Head is replaced by Analytic. Normally, this would be fine and even beneficial for a Pokemon as slow as Mega Sudowoodo, because it’s moves get boosted if the opponent moves first, which they almost always will outside of Trick Room, unless Sudowoodo uses Sucker Punch. The problem is that Wood Hammer is the only Grass type move in Sudowoodo’s arsenal and this puts you in a bit of a dilemma. Is it better to have a STAB, Analytic boosted Wood Hammer with recoil damage or an unboosted Wood Hammer without it?

Sunflora’s one of those Pokemon who needed Mega Evolution as it’s too slow to really make use of Chlorophyll - in Sunny Day or Drought it’s doubled Speed is still only base 60 - and activating Solar Power would lower its HP in exchange for a power boost which is useless if it doesn’t manage to hit the opponent before being knocked out. Furthermore, it has frustratingly few attacking options outside of Grass type moves, being limited to Normal type attacks (which of course can’t cause super effective damage), Earth Power, Sludge Bomb, Acid, Nature Power and Hidden Power. Despite it’s flaws though, the Insurgence developers were not only generous but creative with Sunflora, granting it two Mega Evolutions which share a unique Ability as well as making it the only Pokemon whose two Mega’s rely on gender instead of different Mega Stones.

A male Sunflora becomes a Grass and Fire type, which allows him to resist Steel and Fairy types and take Bug, Ice and Fire type moves more easily than a female, but also makes him lose his resistance to Ground and Water type moves, in addition to giving him a weakness to Rock, though his STAB Grass type attacks can take out most Pokemon of these types easily. The annoying thing about his new typing is that Sunflora can’t learn any Fire type attacks, unless he’s lucky enough to have a Fire type Hidden Power (which is very unlikely as there are 18 different types and Hidden Power’s typing depends on IVs), so he’s got a whole new STAB option which is completely useless. Male Mega Sunflora also has the same stats as the female so only his secondary typing sets him apart.

As for the female Sunflora, she remains a pure Grass type which means she’s more susceptible to super effective hits but also isn’t taunted by the untapped potential of gaining a new typing that provides her with no new STAB options. Like her male counterpart, her Ability is Unleafed, which activates if another member of the team is knocked out and can last up to 5 turns, depending on whether all other Pokemon on the team have been defeated or not. I don’t know if the boosts can last longer by reviving other Pokemon and letting them get knocked out again (and since I don’t like cheating, I don’t intend to experiment with that possibility), but if Unleafed is activated, it boosts all of Mega Sunflora’s stats at once. It’ll be powered up but also on a time limit and will weaken if it doesn’t win within that limit.

Delta Sunflora is a slow Fire and Poison type, so any Ground type worth its salt can obliterate it. However, Delta Sunflora can not only crush regular Sunflora thanks to its type combination, but is granted a much larger moveset. In addition to its STAB Fire and Poison type moves, it can use Earth Power, Solar Beam, Energy Ball, Giga Drain, Signal Beam, X-Scissor, Shadow Ball, Knock Off, Dark Pulse, Pain Split, Hyper Voice and even Explosion. It also has more defensive and status options including Reflect, Light Screen, Snatch, Taunt, Torment, Will-O-Wisp, Wildfire, Toxic, Skill Swap and Trick Room (though I have no idea where the ability to channel the Psychic energy needed for the last two moves came from).

Unlike a normal Sunflora, Delta Sunflora only has one Mega Evolution and can still be easily destroyed by Ground types. However, like both of regular Sunflora’s Mega Evolutions, it gains a new and unique Ability. This Ability is Chlorofury, which raises Mega Delta Sunflora’s Special Attack and Special Defense. Unlike Unleafed, which raises all of regular Mega Sunflora’s stats, Chlorofury only affects Mega Delta Sunflora’s Special stats but it has two major advantages to compensate for this drawback. The first is that it doesn’t rely on other members of Mega Delta Sunflora’s team being unconscious in order to activate and the second is that the boosts don’t wear off after a certain number of turns.

Girafarig has a excellent Hidden Ability, Sap Sipper, which makes it immune to Grass type moves, regardless of whether they’re direct attacks like Energy Ball and Seed Bomb or status moves like Leech Seed and Sleep Powder, whilst also boosting its Attack if the opponent hits it with one. Outside of that however, there’s little point in using it if you’re not using it’s Mega Evolution. Don’t bother with it’s Special Abilities. Inner Focus comes in handy against Fake Out users but since Fake Out only works on the first turn and isn’t the most common attack anyway, you should just stick to Sap Sipper.

Mega Girafarig gains boosted offensive and defensive stats and a unique Ability called Spectral Jaws. In addition to Crunch, the Pokemon Insurgence developers were kind enough to give it access to Hyper Fang, Thunder Fang, Ice Fang and Fire Fang. All these moves gain a 30% boost and turn into Special Attacks thanks to Spectral Jaws and since they’re backed up by a base 130 Special Attack stat, they can hit pretty hard. Unfortunately, Mega Girafarig isn’t any faster than normal Girafarig and while it’s endurance has been buffed by 30 points in both Defense and Special Defense, it still struggles against powerful attackers.

Mega Girafarig also has a unique Mega Stone, the Etigirafarigite (just like Girafarig’s name, that word is a palindrome) and gains 120 more stat points when it Mega Evolves instead of the usual 100.

As a Steel and Poison type. Delta Girafarig can be crushed by Ground types. However, it’s Hidden Ability is Intimidate (don’t bother with its Special Abilities) and it can use Magnet Rise to avoid Ground type moves.

Upon Mega Evolving, Delta Girafarig’s Ability turns into Filter, which weakens the power of super effective moves. Thanks to this Ability, a generous boost to it’s endurance, access to Magnet Rise, and Intimidating its opponent before Mega Evolving, Mega Delta Girafarig can be surprisingly tanky. Not only that, but it’s Special Attack gains 40 points and it has access to a fair few Special moves to take advantage of this including Flash Cannon, Mirror Shot, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave, Giga Drain, Dark Pulse, Snarl, Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Charge Beam and Hyper Voice. It’s most notable option is Corrode, an excellent STAB move which, while not the most powerful attack, is not only backed up a base 130 Special Attack, but has the unique distinction of being the only Poison type move that can hurt Steel types and on top of that, it hits them super effectively.

Steelix is primarily known for its titanic Defense stat, but it can’t hit its opponents tremendously hard without using one of its Mega Evolutions. Furthermore, it’s extremely slow and can be quickly overwhelmed by Special Attacks. However, this doesn’t make Steelix a bad Pokemon by any means. Thanks to Sturdy, it will always take at least one hit unless it’s Ability is changed or disabled and healing items such as Leftovers provide it with greater longevity. It’s massive 200 Defense gives it the necessary bulk to set up Stealth Rock on a Physical Attacker and then Roar it away, poison it with Toxic, set up a Sandstorm (which can be beneficial to the Steel variant of Mega Steelix but I’ll get to that in a moment) or trap it with Bind or Sand Tomb. It can also use its low Speed to its advantage by using Gyro Ball, which is a STAB move that is stronger against faster opponents.

The Steel type Mega Steelix has its Defense buffed up to a whopping 230, the highest possible Defense stat of any Pokemon which is rivalled only by Shuckle and Mega Aggron. It also gains a generous 40 points to its Attack, meaning it can now bring the pain directly to its opponent rather than relying on Stealth Rock, Toxic, Sandstorm, Bind or Sand Tomb. It’s Special Defense is increased too, but not as much as it would like. Base 95 Special Defense lets Mega Steelix take a hit or two from the Special side but it still primarily works as a Physical Wall. Also it’s Sand Force Ability boosts the power of Steel, Rock and Ground type moves in a Sandstorm, which would be great if not for the fact that Mega Steelix needs to be holding a Mega Stone and therefore has no way of healing outside of Rest or team support. Because of this, setting up Sandstorm and giving the opponent a chance to set up, switch out, or land powerful hits is a bit of a gamble and the fact that Mega Steelix is still just as slow as regular Steelix makes it even more risky.

The Fire type variant of Mega Steelix is less bulky than its Steel type counterpart and has an extreme vulnerability to Ground type moves due to turning into a Steel and Fire type. However, it also has a higher Attack stat, is a bit faster and gains a cool Ability called Foundry, which gives it’s Rock type attacks a 30% boost and turns all Rock type moves, including Stealth Rock, into Fire type moves. Furthermore, turning into a part Fire type itself means that it now takes neutral hits from Fire types and can destroy them with Earthquake, though losing its Ground typing means that Ground type attacks will no longer have a STAB boost.

Scizor is one of the most popular Bug types and you can clearly see why. An awesome design, awesome Special Ability called Technician and a great typing of Bug and Steel which leaves it with only one weakness (though granted, it’s a 4× weakness) has made Scizor a very potent Pokemon over the years. Although it’s the only Pokemon with the same stat total as its pre-evolved form and is much slower than Scyther, it makes up for this with Quick Attack or Bullet Punch, higher Attack, greater bulk provided by a combination of higher defensive stats and a superior type combination, and the ability to Mega Evolve.

Scizor didn’t actually need a Mega Evolution as it was already a coveted Pokemon on its own, but by turning into Mega Scizor, all of it’s stats are increased with the most notable boost being it’s Defense, which has been increased by 40 points. While it still hates Fire type moves, it can wall most other Physical hits with ease and it’s ability to use Roost provides it with greater longevity. It also maintains Technician, increasing the power of Quick Attack, Double Hit, False Swipe, Metal Claw, Bullet Punch, Bug Bite, Fury Cutter, Pursuit, Aerial Ace and Acrobatics (though holding a Mega Stone still somewhat hinders this moves power).

Delta Scizor is an Ice and Fighting type, the only one of it’s kind aside from Delta Scyther and Crabominabal (which is a Generation VII Pokemon and therefore has nothing to do with Pokemon Insurgence). As well as it’s rare type combination, Delta Scizor also has a rare Ability called Ice Cleats, which is very useful in Hail because it boosts it’s Speed. Fear not if it’s not Hailing though because Delta Scizor can utilise STAB Ice Shard or Vacuum Wave (though it’s wiser to use the former since the latter is a Special Attack) to make up for the fact that it’s much slower than Delta Scyther. It should also be noted that Delta Scizor is much more vulnerable than regular Scizor because although it has the same stats, it has 6 type weaknesses whereas normal Scizor only has 1, although none of Delta Scizor’s type weaknesses hurt it as much as Fire hurts regular Scizor.

Mega Delta Scizor loses Ice Cleats but gains an Ability that is arguably even better; Adaptability. This increases the power of all it’s STAB moves and with powerful attacks like Icicle Crash and Close Combat, it enables it to really bring the pain to its opponents. While it still has more type weaknesses than regular Scizor, it gains it’s counterpart’s great Attack and Defense and in addition to having access to Roost, it can also heal itself with an Adaptability boosted STAB Drain Punch.

Aside from its average Speed and 4× weakness to Flying, Heracross is a very potent Bug type Pokemon. Megahorn and Close Combat give it a pair of very powerful STAB options while Brick Break can smash Reflect and Light Screen. It also has some nice coverage moves including Earthquake, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace and Night Slash. Heracross is also notable for being one of the few Pokemon that can be better than it’s Mega Evolution in certain situations. For one thing, it’s faster than Mega Heracross and for another, it can use Guts to increase the power of Physical Attacks if it’s suffering from a status condition. This is especially useful if it receives a burn, either from an opponent or from its own Flame Orb, as this would usually weaken a Physical Attacker but instead makes Heracross more powerful.

Mega Heracross loses Guts upon Mega Evolving as well as 10 points of its Speed, so in certain situations, especially against opponents who like inflicting status conditions, it would be wiser not to Mega Evolve it at all. However, this doesn’t make Mega Heracross useless by any means. On the contrary, its massive 185 Attack stat, which exceeds the Attack power of Mega Rayquaza, Primal Groudon and Attack Form Deoxys and is surpassed only by Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Shadow Mewtwo, makes Mega Heracross a formidable Pokemon in it’s own way and although it works differently from regular Heracross, it can be devastating in situations where it benefits from Mega Evolving. Mega Heracross is a bit slower than regular Heracross but also more durable and makes up for the loss of Guts with Skill Link, which ensures that Pin Missile, Arm Thrust, Rock Blast and Bullet Seed will strike 5 times. This also makes Substitutes and Sturdy completely useless against it. Mega Heracross could almost be considered a separate Pokemon from regular Heracross due to the differences in their fighting styles but both of them have the ability to pound their opponents into the ground when used correctly.

Magcargo is slow, can be obliterated by Ground or Water type moves and its high Defense isn’t much use against moves like Earthquake or Waterfall. It may get a lucky burn with Flame Body but that Ability activates at random when hit by a Physical Attack and I don’t trust luck. Fortunately, Magcargo has plenty of useful status moves, including Shell Smash, Sunny Day, Sandstorm, Yawn, Will-O-Wisp, Wildfire, Rock Polish, Stealth Rock, Pain Split, Iron Defense, Amnesia, Recover and both Reflect and Light Screen. On the offensive side, Magcargo’s STAB options include Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Lava Plume, Overheat, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Smack Down and Ancient Power (for its Rock type move, I’d go for Ancient Power as Magcargo’s Special Attack is higher than its Attack). It can also use Body Slam, Earth Power, Earthquake, Bulldoze, Clear Smog, Gyro Ball, Solar Beam and Explosion.

Mega Magcargo is an interesting Pokemon. By shedding its shell, it becomes a bit faster and loses its Rock typing, on top of gaining a massive 70 points to its Special Attack. However, despite an excellent Ability called Vaporisation, which not only makes it immune to Water type moves but actually hurts any Water type that faces it, Mega Magcargo still struggles due to losing a whopping 110 points in its Defense. This would be fine if they put those 110 points into it’s other stats - imagine a lightning fast sweeper with high Special Defense for example (though 100 base Special Defense lets it take a hit or two from the Special side) - but instead, they only use 30 of those extra stat points which means that sacrificing such a massive part of its endurance was completely pointless. Although Vaporisation protects it from Water type moves, almost any other Physical Attack can crush it and it’s still too slow to ensure that it can hit its opponent before getting pounded into the ground.

Mega Magcargo still gets the traditional 100 point stat increase but it’s stat total is only 20 points higher than that of regular Magcargo due to the fact that it only uses 30 of the 110 points it could be using from it’s lowered Defense. Overall, this is a pretty frustrating Mega Evolution when you compare how powerful it could have been to how powerful it actually is.

Houndoom has always been a pretty damn cool Pokemon in terms of design and typing but despite having a decent Special Attack stat, it’s held back by it’s low Defense and shallow movepool. It can use Counter to turn it’s weak Defense into an asset but unless it has a Focus Sash, this strategy is likely to fail more often than not. Will-O-Wisp is another way of dealing with it’s low Defense but even when burned, Fighting, Ground, Water and/or Rock types can usually pound it into the ground, if not from the Physical side then from the Special side. It could try a Rest and Sleep Talk/Snore set combined with Early Bird and a STAB Fire and Dark type move, but Houndoom’s too frail to be able to rely on this set. Unnerve prevents opponents from eating berries, but then again so does Incinerate. Flash Fire enables Houndoom to switch in on Fire type moves and gain a boost to it’s own Fire type attacks but the boost gets cancelled if it Mega Evolves.

Mega Houndoom gains 40 more points to it’s Defense, so it can now use Counter without needing a Focus Sash, although it still struggles to take super effective hits. It also becomes as fast as Mega Rayquaza and Mega Absol and gains a generous Special Attack boost, which can be boosted even further with Nasty Plot and/or Sunny Day due to the latter move activating Solar Power. Unfortunately, although Solar Power boosts Mega Houndoom’s Special Attack in sunlight, it also causes it to take damage as long as the sun is out. Mega Houndoom is bulkier than regular Houndoom but it’s only recovery options are Rest and Dream Eater (and of course, the opponent has to be asleep in order for the latter to work), so you have to ask yourself whether the boosted Special Attack power and ability to launch Solar Beam instantly is worth the loss of HP.

Donphan is a pretty straightforward Pokemon that’s designed to tank hits and strike hard. Thanks to strong Attack and Defense, it’s pretty good at this and even it’s low Speed isn’t too much of a problem because it can be used to Donphan’s advantage with Gyro Ball or overcome with Ice Shard. It’s Speed only really becomes a problem if it doesn’t have Ice Shard (which it can only learn through breeding) or is facing fellow priority users or Pokemon that can shrug off Ice and/or Steel type moves. Sturdy also ensures that Donphan will always take at least one hit, unless it’s Ability is disabled, replaced or the opponent has Mold Breaker. Since Donphan has ways of dealing with it’s low Speed, it’s biggest weakness is it’s Special Defense but it’s Mega Evolution makes up for that.

Losing Sturdy can be a bit of a hindrance but aside from that, Mega Donphan does everything regular Donphan does except better. And it’s not like it’s replacement Ability is useless. On the contrary, Irrelephant allows Mega Donphan to hit Flying types with STAB Earthquake, although Ground type moves still don’t work on Pokemon with Levitate. On top of having generous boosts to its Attack and Defense, Mega Donphan’s Special Defense is boosted by 40 points, which means it no longer needs to rely on Sturdy to endure Special Attacks.

Miltank has always been a decent Pokemon with surprisingly good Speed, reliable recovery thanks to Milk Drink, good Defense and 3 useful Abilities. A Sap Sipper Miltank can switch in on Grass type moves and gain an Attack boost whilst also being immune to the move, a Thick Fat Miltank can tank Ice and Fire type moves whilst wearing down her opponent, and a Scrappy Miltank can hit Ghost types with Normal and Fighting type moves which allows her to hit all Pokemon, barring Shedinja, for at least neutral damage using only one STAB move along with Brick Break or Hammer Arm. Miltank also has the advantage of being faster than her Mega Evolution.

Mega Miltank loses 30 points of her Speed but is also much more resilient and has a much higher Attack stat which is complemented by her Pendulum Ability. Pendulum causes repeated use of the same move to get more powerful with each hit, which is especially useful with Rollout but also applies to moves like Body Slam and Earthquake. However, while losing Thick Fat is no great loss, Sap Sipper and Scrappy can be more useful than Pendulum in certain situations, plus Mega Miltank is much slower than regular Miltank.

Tyranitar’s a Pseudo-Legendary, one of those rare Pokemon that sits on the border between Legendary and Non-Legendary due to its base stat total reaching 600 points. It also has plenty of useful and/or powerful attacks including Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Crunch, Payback, Earthquake, Thunder Fang, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Outrage, Dragon Claw, Aqua Tail, Iron Tail, Iron Head, Superpower, Brick Break, Power Up Punch, Retaliate, Chip Away, Giga Impact and even Aerial Ace (though I have no idea how such a large Pokemon can use a move that is said to require quick movement in order to be executed, especially since Speed isn’t Tyranitar’s forte anyway). It’s Special Attack isn’t too shabby either; base 95 is respectable and it can use Snarl, Dark Pulse, Dark Matter, Ancient Power, Earth Power, Dragon Pulse, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Surf, Hyper Beam and more. Even defensively it can be pretty good, especially when wearing the Tyranitar Armour to increase its Defense and Special Defense, able to set up Stealth Rock and/or Permafrost and Roar away its opponent or increase its stats with Iron Defense, Dragon Dance or/and Rock Polish. With mostly good stats and versatility to back them up, you’d think that Tyranitar wouldn’t need a Mega Evolution. However, one must take into account the fact that it despises Fighting type moves due to being both a Rock and Dark type. It’s also a rather slow Pokemon, although it can use Draco Jet, Rock Polish and Dragon Dance to make up for it’s low Speed.

Mega Tyranitar still has Sand Stream, which you might think is pointless considering it uses it as regular Tyranitar anyway (unless it has its Hidden Ability but Unnerve is rarely useful). However, if you use regular Tyranitar for 5 turns, a risky strategy because it might get knocked out in that time but Tyranitar’s not a Pseudo-Legendary for nothing, and then Mega Evolve it once the first Sand Stream wears off, you’re fighting with the free advantages provided by a 10 turn long Sandstorm. Another strategy is that if Mega Tyranitar needs to switch out, you can just wait for the first Sand Stream to wear off while your next Pokemon deals with the opposition and then switch Mega Tyranitar back in to summon another one. It’s also interesting to note that Mega Tyranitar actually has a higher Defense stat than Armoured Tyranitar, though it’s Special Defense is lower. Combined with its base 164 Attack, this gives it a better chance against Fighting types.

Sceptile is the fastest Grass type Pokemon, apart from Sky Form Shaymin, and this gives it a niche. However, unlike Shaymin, it suffers from low Defense and it’s Special Defense leaves much to be desired. Sceptile is also noted for its Physical Attacks, including Leaf Blade, Night Slash, Crunch, Dragon Claw, Earthquake, Brick Break, Drain Punch, Thunder Punch, Aerial Ace, Acrobatics, Rock Slide and X-Scissor, all of which can be powered up by Swords Dance. Unfortunately, it’s Attack stat is actually 20 points lower than it’s Special Attack. On the Special side of the attacking spectrum it’s options include Leaf Storm, Frenzy Plant, Giga Drain, Dragon Pulse and Focus Blast, which is backed up by a 105 Special Attack stat. This would make it a decent Special Sweeper if not for the fact that it’s Special movepool is frustratingly shallow, especially when compared to how many Physical Attacks it can learn.

With a Speed boost that reaches a whopping 145, Mega Sceptile not only surpasses Sky Form Shaymin as the fastest Grass type but is now one of the top 10 fastest Pokemon period. It also becomes a Dragon type which enables it to blast opponents with STAB Dragon Pulses backed up by a 145 Special Attack stat. Mega Sceptile’s Attack is also boosted by 25 points, which means it can be a fairly potent Physical Sweeper without having to rely too heavily on Swords Dance. Unfortunately becoming a Dragon might actually be more of a hindrance than an advantage, considering it’s now weak against Fairy and Dragon types and has a 4× weakness to Ice but on the bright side, it actually has a fighting chance against Fire types. Mega Sceptile is also notable for having Lightning Rod which seems completely pointless at first glance, because a Grass and Dragon type is barely bothered by Electric attacks anyway. However, Lightning Rod does have one crucial use; it protects Mega Sceptile from Thunder Wave and the paralysing side effects of other Electric attacks. On top of it’s immunity to Electric attacks, Mega Sceptile is also immune to Stun Spore and because of this, it rarely needs to worry about paralysis after Mega Evolving.

Thanks to Speed Boost, Blaziken managed to break through into the top tiers of competitive battling even without it’s Mega Evolution. Protect and Substitute give it time to increase its Speed while Bulk Up and Swords Dance can boost it’s other stats and then it can Baton Pass to another Pokemon. In addition to being a good Baton Passer, Blaziken is also good on the offensive side, with a 120 Attack stat and 110 Special Attack stat backed up with moves like Blaze Kick, Fire Punch, Flare Blitz, Flamethrower, Overheat, Blast Burn, High Jump Kick, Sky Uppercut, Brick Break, Focus Blast, Thunder Punch, Brave Bird, Aerial Ace, Acrobatics, Stone Edge, Earthquake, Shadow Claw and the Sunny Day and Solar Beam combination. Although Blaziken has a lot going for it, it’s hindered by its somewhat low defensive stats and although Bulk Up can boost it’s Defense, it has nothing to boost it’s Special Defense and therefore can be overwhelmed by Special Attacks.

Blaziken never needed a Mega Evolution but it got one anyway. Mega Blaziken is still pretty frail, with only 10 points added to it’s Defense and Special Defense respectively, but it’s faster, more powerful and still has Speed Boost. Like regular Blaziken, it can be a potent Baton Passer but why bother Mega Evolving it if you’re just going to switch it out anyway? This is one of the most, if not the most, pointless Mega Evolutions since regular Blaziken can already do everything Mega Blaziken can do without a Mega Stone, as long as it has it’s Hidden Ability. If you are using Mega Blaziken though, you should just go straight for the throat with it’s considerable offensive prowess. If nothing else, you can at least finish the battle more quickly.

Being a Water and Ground type means that Swampert only has one type weakness; Grass. Granted, it’s a 4× weakness and therefore, Swampert will probably be knocked out before it can strike back, especially since it’s slow, but it can hit them super effectively with Ice Beam, Avalanche or Ice Punch. There’s little point in using regular Swampert once you have it’s Mega Stone because Torrent only activates when it’s weak and Damp is almost completely useless.

Mega Swampert on the other hand not only maintains the Water and Ground typing, which is usually a strength and only becomes a weakness if it’s hit with Grass type moves, but also becomes bulkier, considerably more powerful when applying it’s base 150 Attack, and is excellent in Rain Dance thanks to Swift Swim doubling it’s Speed. If it’s not raining, Mega Swampert is still pretty slow but it’s Speed is raised from 70 to 140 once Swift Swim is activated, making it a potentially lethal sweeper. It’s still likely to lose a fight with Mega Sceptile, who is not only a Grass type but is slightly faster even in rain, but Mega Swampert can smash through most other threats with Rain Dance boosted STAB Waterfalls (or it could if that damn move was available via TM or Move Tutor) or Aqua Tails, STAB Earthquake and coverage moves like Ice Punch, Brick Break, Superpower, Stone Edge, Rock Slide or even Outrage. Hammer Arm is also an option but it lowers the users Speed and you want Mega Swampert to be as fast as possible in order to make full use of Swift Swim. Don’t use Avalanche because that will always be used after your opponent, even in Rain Dance.

Shiftry can be obliterated by Bug types due to its 4× weakness and low endurance. Sunny Day allows it to fire an instant Solar Beam and restore 2/3 of its health with Synthesis, in addition to activating Chlorophyll and boosting its Speed. However, Sunny Day also makes it even more vulnerable to Fire type moves. Shiftry can learn Rock Slide to hit Bug, Fire, Ice and Flying types super effectively as well as kamikaze itself with Explosion in the hopes of taking its opponent down with it, but relies heavily on its Mega Evolution to stand a chance against higher tier Pokemon.

Mega Shiftry is faster and can hit a lot harder with both Physical and Special Attacks but only has 10 points added to its Defense and nothing added to its Special Defense so it’s still very frail. However, it can become a lethal sweeper in New Moon, which not only allows it to fire Lunar Cannon instantly but increases its Speed by activating its Shadow Dance ability. Under New Moon, Mega Shiftry can outspeed anything outside of Trick Room, unless very fast Pokemon like Ninjask or Speed Form Deoxys have managed to use Speed Boost or Agility. For these rare circumstances, Mega Shiftry can use Sucker Punch and Quick Attack. However, it hates priority moves being used against it and relies heavily on its ability to defeat its opponents before they can strike back.

Gardevoir has strong Special Attack which is backed up by a fairly good variety of Special moves including Psychic, Psyshock, Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam, Thunderbolt, Charge Beam, Shadow Ball, Magical Leaf, Energy Ball, Grass Knot, Focus Blast, Signal Beam, Icy Wind and Hyper Voice (which is especially beneficial for it’s Mega Evolution). It’s Special Defense is pretty good too and Calm Mind boosts both of it’s strongest stats at once. Gardevoir also has some surprising options that you would expect to find on a Ghost type such as Will-O-Wisp and Destiny Bond. It has low Defense but burning the opponent with Will-O-Wisp and/or setting Reflect can provide it with some protection. Gardevour’s most consistent Ability is Synchronise, which causes the opponent to become burned, poisoned or paralysed if they use these status conditions on it, unless they are immune to said conditions. However, Trace can be more useful in certain situations. For example, if you send Gardevoir out against a Pokemon with Intimidate, most of which are Physical Attackers, Trace will allow it to use Intimidate and then Gardevoir can set up Reflect or burn the opponent with Will-O-Wisp to make up for its low Defense. However, Trace can also be useless or a downright hindrance, depending on what Ability it copies. Fortunately, Gardevoir’s ability to Mega Evolve means that even if it copies Truant, Defeatist, Slow Start etc, the Ability will be replaced with Pixilate as soon as it transforms.

Mega Gardevoir becomes a very powerful Special Attacker and it’s Pixilate Ability turns it’s Normal type moves into Fairy type moves whilst also giving them a 30% boost. Because of this, Mega Gardevoir’s Hyper Voice is more powerful than Moonblast. It also becomes a bit faster and gains a higher Special Defense stat. Unfortunately, nothing has been added to Mega Gardevoir’s Defense and since it’s primarily a Special Attacker the 20 points that were added to its Attack are useless.

Delta Gardevoir is an Electric and Ice type which makes it a perfect candidate for the popular Bolt Beam combo, allowing it to hit almost any Pokemon for at least neutral damage using only Thunderbolt and Ice Beam (exceptions include Shedinja, opposing Delta Gardevoirs and Delta Gallade). Being an Electric and Ice type also allows it to set up the entry hazards Livewire or Permafrost which can cause paralysis or freezing when a Pokemon switches in, although these entry hazards can be avoided fairly easily. Clear Body makes Delta Gardevoir immune to stat loss prior to Mega Evolving.

Mega Delta Gardevoir has Lightning Rod, which it can also have in it’s regular form but there’s no point in having it in that form if you’re going to Mega Evolve it anyway. If the opponent attacks with an Electric type move, not only will Mega Delta Gardevoir be immune to it, but it will gain a free Special Attack boost. It’s a powerful Special Attacker with a solid Special Defense stat, but suffers from low Defense. Reflect can give it some protection but unlike regular Gardevoir, Delta Gardevoir can’t learn Will-O-Wisp or Trace Intimidate so trying to wall Physical Attackers probably won’t work.

Gallade is the male only counterpart of Gardevoir and unlike his “sister” (okay, technically Gardevoir can be male but come on, it looks like a female) he specialises in Physical Attacks. Psycho Cut, Close Combat, Drain Punch, Leaf Blade, Night Slash, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Earthquake, X-Scissor, Poison Jab and Aerial Ace provide Gallade with plenty of options and all can be powered up by Swords Dance or Bulk Up. I would personally go for Bulk Up because it raises Gallade’s low Defense as well as his Attack but then again, Swords Dance raises his Attack by two levels instead of just one. Gallade is also excellent as a lead against Pokemon who use Fake Out because by activating Steadfast, it gives him a speed boost and makes it easier to sweep.

Speaking of sweeping, Mega Gallade is designed to do just that. He’s faster than Mega Gardevoir and his Attack rivals his counterpart’s Special Attack which makes him a deadly Physical Attacker. Unlike Mega Gardevoir, Mega Gallade also received a Defense boost so he doesn’t have to rely too heavily on Bulk Up, Reflect or Will-O-Wisp to take Physical Attacks. One disadvantage Mega Gallade has is that Inner Focus is rarely of any use, especially if Steadfast has already been activated prior to Mega Evolving. It only really comes in handy against Para-Flinching Pokemon like Togekiss and Jirachi.

Like Delta Gardevoir, Delta Gallade is an Ice and Electric type. Unlike Delta Gardevoir, he can’t do much with the Bolt Beam combination because his Special Attack is so low. Fortunately, he has Ice Punch, Icicle Crash, Thunder Punch and Wild Charge to make up for this on top of all of regular Gallade’s coverage moves, apart from Close Combat.

Mega Delta Gallade is faster and stronger with higher Defense but unlike Delta Gardevoir, who can have Clear Body before Mega Evolving and Lightning Rod after it, Delta Gallade’s Special Ability remains the same both before and after his transformation. This isn’t a bad thing because Volt Absorb enables him to switch in on Electric attacks and be healed in the process, which can be pretty useful, especially when combined with Drain Punch. It just means that there’s no point in keeping Delta Gallade in his regular form and part of the fun with Mega Evolution is deciding when it’s most appropriate to transform.

For 3 Generations, Sableye was one of the very few Pokemon who had no type weaknesses. Then Fairy types came along and Sableye cowered in the face of their super effective moves. Another weakness is that it’s stats don’t back up its great typing. It was granted a great Hidden Ability in the form of Prankster, allowing it to always use Toxic, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray, Swagger, Taunt, Torment, Trick, Substitute, Psych Up, Double Team, Attract, Calm Mind, Pain Split and Recover before it’s opponents but since most Pokemon can simply beat it into the ground with raw power, this wasn’t enough for Sableye to hold its own in the higher tiers of Pokemon battling.

Fortunately, Mega Sableye turned the tables, skyrocketing Sableye from a rather weak Pokemon with a couple of great assets into one of the strongest defensive Pokemon in the game. Not only was it granted a huge 50 points to both it’s Defense and Special Defense, but it’s Special Ability is just as good, if not better, than Prankster. Magic Bounce deflects all status moves back at it’s opponents (although the Insurgence developers forgot to apply this to entry hazards, which should also be rebounded), forcing them to attack the very durable Mega Sableye directly instead of trying to wait it out. Mega Sableye on the other hand is designed to wait its opponents out. By healing off damage with Recover, Mega Sableye can lounge behind it’s massive red gem, waiting for its opponents to succumb to Toxic or Will-O-Wisp. However, although Mega Sableye’s an excellent defensive Pokemon, it isn’t so potent on the offensive side. It’s as slow as Mega Camerupt due to it’s Speed being decreased by 30 points in order to boost it’s Attack and Special Attack and although it has Fake Out, Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak to make up for its low Speed, these moves still won’t hit very hard.

You know how people in Pokemon Insurgence claim that Delta Pokemon are better than regular Pokemon? They lied. Delta Sableye is a Fire and Rock type and can therefore be destroyed by Water or Ground type moves. Solid Rock won’t be enough to stop them and unlike regular Sableye, it has no special niches before Mega Evolving.

Mega Delta Sableye has strong endurance in terms of stats, but since it’s still a Water and Rock type, it can still be obliterated by a Water or Ground type move. Furthermore, unlike regular Sableye, it has no way of healing outside of Rest and it’s only priority move is Fake Out, which only works on the first turn so it won’t make up for its low Speed, though Gyro Ball can be of some use considering almost all of its opponents will be faster. Even Mega Delta Sableye’s Ability isn’t that great compared to Magic Bounce. Bulletproof protects it from a select few moves, namely Acid Spray, Aura Sphere, Barrage, Bullet Seed, Egg Bomb, Electro Ball, Energy Ball, Focus Blast, Gyro Ball, Ice Ball, Magnet Bomb, Mist Ball, Mud Bomb, Octazooka, Rock Blast, Rock Wrecker, Searing Shot, Seed Bomb, Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, Weather Ball and Zap Cannon but isn’t enough to make up for its lousy typing.

Before Generation VI, Mawile was pretty useless. However, it received two wonderful gifts when it was made into a dual Steel and Fairy type and given a powerful Mega Evolution. Mawile’s excellent defensive typing gives it 2 immunities (Poison and Dragon) and a whopping 9 resistances (Normal, Flying, Rock, Bug, Grass, Psychic, Ice, Dark and Fairy). Intimidate cuts down Physical Attackers power as soon as they switch in, unless they have Hyper Cutter (which Mawile also has access to but Intimidate is better), Clear Body or are protected by Mist. Regular Mawile has low stats but it’s Mega Evolution more than makes up for this.

After Intimidating it’s opponent, regular Mawile’s work is done and it can start pounding its opponents into the ground with its formidable Mega Evolution. At first glance 105 Attack seems pretty low for a Mega but Huge Power more than makes up for this, doubling Mega Mawile’s Attack power so that it reaches a devastating 205. That kind of Attack power can put a sizeable dent into even Mega Steelix and Mega Aggron, especially if Mega Mawile smashes them with Brick Break or boosts with Power Up Punch or Swords Dance. Not only is its Attack terrifyingly strong, but its Defense has been buffed to 125 which, combined with Intimidate and it’s excellent typing, makes it pretty hard to take down with Physical Attacks. Unfortunately, it isn’t so durable against Special Attacks. Its Special Defense is 95, which is decent but powerful Special Attackers can break through. Mega Mawile is also slow, with only 50 Speed, but this isn’t much of a problem thanks to Sucker Punch. A combination of Iron Head, Play Rough and Sucker Punch gives Mega Mawile everything it needs to cause serious damage, so you can do whatever you like with its last move slot. Do you want to set up a Substitute? Increase it’s Defense even more with Iron Defense? Heal off damage with Pain Split? Power up even further with Power Up Punch, Psych Up or Swords Dance? Your choice.